Exercise Pitch Black 2022, the largest air combat exercise in the southern hemisphere, was notable for several events but perhaps none more so than the debut of the fifth generation Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter.
A number of F-35A conventional take off and landing (CTOL) aircraft flew from RAAF Base Darwin during the exercise, flying alongside RAAF EA-18G Growler airborne electronic attack aircraft and combat aircraft from nine other countries.
In addition, twelve short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35Bs from the United States Marine Corps participated in the exercise from RAAF Tindal, near Katherine.
The RAAF began receiving its F-35As in 2014, with initial training being carried out in the US, but Pitch Black 2022 was the first Australian multi-lateral exercise the aircraft has participated in.
While other RAAF F-35As from Tindal did not take part in the exercise, they instead flew daily missions with US Air Force F-22A Raptors under the US Enhanced Air Cooperation (EAC) agreement.
The Darwin-based F-35As participating in Pitch Black 2022 were operating as a composite force, with aircraft and personnel from Nos. 3 & 75 squadrons, normally based at Williamtown and Tindal respectively.
Australia’s F-35As flew only Blue Air missions during the exercise, but operated with a range of aircraft types from partner nations. Flight Lieutenant Mick Grey, a pilot with 75 squadron, described the edge the fifth-generation fighter brings to the fight.
“We like the F-35, because of the high-fidelity information that it provides us. It's above all else an airborne sensor. So, it uses the equipment on the jet to provide extremely high-fidelity information to us to enable us to make better decisions on the battlefield,” he explained.
“Its APG-81 radar, combined with the way that the jets speak to each other [via Multi-function advanced datal link - MADL], and uses that information to combine all of the data the sensors are pulling in is what we call sensor fusion. That allows us to make better calls on the battlefield when we're out there fighting.”
FLTLT Grey added that another reason the F-35 is well liked by its pilots is because it is relatively easy to fly. “So, we can spend less time thinking about the actual flying of the aircraft, and more time thinking about the tactical problems that we're being faced with, because it's just much easier to fly compared to fourth generation aircraft like the classic Hornet,” he said.
“And lastly, the big reason why we like it is because of the lethality and flexibility of the platform. Flying the F 35, we can deal with problems that in previous platforms, such as the Hornet we would have just turned and run away from, but in the F 35 we look at it and it's just like: ‘okay, cool. That's no problem for us at all’. And the flexibility that it affords us - it's capable of dealing with such a variety of mission sets, and doing that all at the same time. Other platforms might need significant configuration changes before they can go and tackle different mission sets, whereas this aircraft can do suppression of enemy air defence (SEAD) concurrently with air-to-air missions. It's really good in that way, there's not a different aircraft that I would rather be flying. It's the most capable one out there at the moment.”
